Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali thinks his team willchange Kimi Raikkonen’s engine for the British Grand Prix following his
exhaust problems in Magny-Cours.
Raikkonen suffered a broken exhaust in the French GP, which cost him victory but also led to light damage to his car and engine.
And to avoid the possibility of further problems at Silverstone, the
team are now set to replace Raikkonen’s power unit for this weekend’s
race.
They can do so without the usual 10-place grid penalty because a new
‘one free engine change’ rule that was introduced at the start of this
year.
Domenicali said on Tuesday: "As far as Kimi’s engine is concerned
and keeping the rules in mind, to avoid a penalty, I think that we will
use a new unit to try to reduce the risk."
The approach with Raikkonen comes after Domenicali admitted that his
team have thrown away points this year through poor reliability and
mistakes.
"Looking at the numbers we can be satisfied of what we have done
until now, but we can’t forget that it wasn’t all that smooth," he told
Ferrari’s official website. "We left some important points down the
road, because of a lack of reliability or because of mistakes on every
level. Our situation in the championship could be much better.
"Even during a weekend when our performance was much better than the
one of our competitors, we risked to not reach our goal by a defect or
some minor detail. We were able and also lucky to bring home Kimi’s car
(in France). But this alarm bell has to keep us alert."
Ferrari are locked in a tight title battle with rivals McLaren and
BMW Sauber, and Domenicali says he is unsure of how the fight will pan
out over the remainder of the season.
He is confident, however, that the fact his team have two drivers
involved in the contest at the front is not a disadvantage for his
outfit.
"McLaren might have something up the sleeve in terms of performance,
while BMW has shown some consistency in terms of results. As far as the
drivers’ championship is concerned there are four drivers on the list.
And we are glad that two come from our team.
"I hear from time to time that it might be difficult to have two
drivers fighting against each other and at the same time against the
drivers of the other teams. But I don’t agree at all.
"When you work in great harmony and transparency inside the team and
having two drivers, who can fight for the title, I’d say it’s a
resource and not a handicap."
Well, that’s perfect timing for a news update! I deleted the previous post about the possibilty of no engine change. We can look forward to Kimi having his mind set on winning at Silverstone now, without any engine worries. Hopefully all should go well! Ferrari and Kimi’s championships certainly could have been better than they are at the moment, but that’s just even more reason to work harder to defend their titles.
Raikko, Kubica & Hamilton to attend Race of Champions?
From TopGear.com
The new Wembley stadium in London will host its second Race of
Champions in as many years on December 14, the organisers have
confirmed.
The RoC concept, which sees racers from various motorsport disciplines
going head-to-head in a variety of cars, has proved successful at
attracting big names over the past few years.
Michael Schumacher is effectively a regular (and confirmed for 2008) as
is WRC god Sebastien Loeb and eight-time Le Mans winner Tom Kristensen.
However, there are three big names from F1 who have never competed at
the Race of Champions: Lewis Hamilton, Kimi Raikkonen and Robert
Kubica.
We’ve done some digging around and although the organisers wouldn’t
admit it, we understand all three have an open invitation to this
year’s event.
Hands up who wants to see Lewis take on Schumi in identical cars?
Lewis is a great driver, as most would have seen his lap in the Suzuki on the Top Gear programme. That would be great, but I especially would like to see all three of them against Schumacher! It’s been long over due that Kimi has a face off with the man he replaced at Ferrari.
FUCK ISRAEL 
E’ davvero un gran problema quello del motore di Kimi Raikkonen!
Una retrocessione per Kimi sulla griglia di partenza significherebbe una nuova gara combattuta senza la certezza di poter salire sul podio. Io incrocio le dita perchè tutto vada bene…
Ciao, Alessandro CuoreFerrarista.
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Hi Saima! I´m up for the engine change for Silverstone; I believe it would be very risky and unwise for the Maranello team to use the damaged engine from France, jeopardising Kimi´s race, and risking a DNF or no points. They HAVE to use that "free" engine that they´re allowed; as you said, they may test the damaged one in the practises, but I personally wouln´t waste time on it either; put on the fresh engine and let´s get on to winning in Silverstone!As for the Race of Champions (another venue I would love to go to someday), I watched it last year, it was so much fun, it would be awesome if Kimi, Lewis and Robert could go, and yeah, a battle between Kimi and Schumi would be very interesting to watch, as would be watching Schumi beat Lewis ass! ; ).Hugs!KEEP FLYING KIMI-KEEP FLYING EVENSTAR-FORZA FERRARI!!!
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No surprise that they’re changing engines, as you and Sol say, there’s now no worry of it expiring mid-race. I would love to see a 3 way battle between Kimi, Schumi and Lewis! That would be fantastic! I know who I’d be putting my money on!!
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Man…now I’m feeling really guilty that I won’t be at Silverstone. I would had prepared the biggest Kimi banner ever!!!!!!!!!! 😦 😦 😦 lol we really need to plan a meet up for next year guys!
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I would have loved to have gone to Silverstone, but it’s just too expensive for me at the moment.I’m tempted by the Race of Champions, though I’d want to know who was definitely taking part first!A meet up would be good, for sure!
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Well guys, if this getting together is actually going to happen, we need to start planning it!!! It would be awesome, so if we´re all up for it, we better start making suggestions, beacuse I´m really getting into it!; ) ; ) ; ) ; )
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Alright, well over at my forum we have a thread about meet ups at races, or even here you can just roughly write down the GPs you can definately afford and visit without any major problem, then from those we can pin one down and see from there 🙂
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Which is the cheapest on the calendar and has the most affordable transport? lol!
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Spa Franchorchamps I’ve been keen on for a while (a whole weekend there, travel/accomodation/ is just the sunday tickets at Silverstone, British GP is a rip off), Magny Cours too is cheap…umm…I need to do more research! lol
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Spa! What a track that would be to make a 1st visit to! I agree that Silverstone is a rip off, which is why I’ve never been on race day. And the weather is always so iffy! Which brings me to Valencia, as the weather there is likely to be 95% chance of sunshine, as well as also looking like an amazing track. No idea how expensive tickets would be, but flights and accommodation in Spain is cheap if you look hard enough.But I wouldn’t be fussy, anywhere that is not extortionate gets my vote!
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Oh yeah, the new circuits! Valencia sounds great, will check that out.
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Just looking on one site, I can’t believe how cheap the weekend general admission is for Spa!!! £130 this year, even Valencia is not that bad at £180, just a shame I have no money at the moment lol!
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Hey guys, I´m loving the enthusiasm!!! I think for me it´s going to be the most difficult, since I have to travel from South America, but I don´t mind, anything for Kimi and Ferrari! But as I said, as long as we plan in advance, there´s no problem.Spa sounds great(I´d love to go to Belgium), Valencia too, I have my sister there, and yeah, Spain is cheaper. What abou Germany? We´ve plenty of time anyway ; ) . But it´s great that we´re already talking about it.
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